Taiwan Pledges Easier Investment Rules to Spur Growth to 4.5%

By Yu-Huay Sun and Sharon Chen -
Dec 27, 2012

Taiwan said it will ease regulations
to attract investment as it pledged to boost growth over the
next four years from about 1 percent currently.

The Cabinet targets average gross domestic product growth
of 4.5 percent from 2013 to 2016 with inflation of no more than
2 percent over the same period, spokeswoman Cheng Li-Wun said at
a press conference in Taipei today. It is aiming for an
unemployment rate of 3.9 percent in 2016, she said, signaling a
reduction from November’s 4.27 percent level.

“We emphasize capital accumulation in growth for next
year,” Yiin Chii-Ming, Taiwan’s minister for the Council for
Economic Planning and Development, said in Taipei today. “We
hope to improve environments for investments” by easing laws
and regulations, Yiin said.

Taiwan’s economy grew 0.98 percent last quarter from a year
earlier, less than previously estimated, even as a recovery in
China boosted the island’s industrial output and exports. The
government has sought to improve relations with the mainland,
its biggest overseas market, having signed an Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement to strengthen trade and
investment ties.

The Cabinet has approved an economic growth target of 3.8
percent for next year, Premier Sean Chen said in a statement on
the government’s website today. The unemployment rate target is
set at 4.1 percent for 2013, with inflation of no more than 2
percent, according to the statement. The government said on Nov.
23 GDP may expand 3.15 percent next year from 3.09 percent
forecast earlier.